Traceability has been an area of much research in recent years due to the need for food quality and safety and the subsequent regulations and legislation that have been put in place around the world. There are economic and market advantages that can be gained from industry members that put traceability tools to use effectively. Bulk products challenge traceability efforts more than other foods due to the complications presented by: 1) bulk storage of many source lots in one container; 2) granular flow characteristics influenced by the grain and the container; and 3) commingling practices that make exact composition of lots difficult to produce.

Much is known about granular flow due to the importance of granular materials in industries around the world. Granular flow produces different flow regimes, or behaviors, under different conditions, and many of those conditions have been tested. There is however, a lack of research into what those flow regimes mean for granular mixing as grain moves through a storage container filled with multiple source lots. This experiment is the beginning of developing that understanding. It consisted of a small model layered with easily differentiable source lots comprised of granular materials that are the same size, shape and mass. Glass beads in easily identifiable colors were used to address the need for uniformity and to provide differentiation. The material is then drawn from an opening in the floor of the apparatus, as it would be in a grain facility, the layers sorted and weighed, and the mixing quantified. Much more work will be needed in this area of research, but the results of this experiment are promising for development of probability models to describe the composition of grain shipments.